Middlesbrough loanee Alan Browne admits he arrives at Middlesbrough with a real point to prove, having been left frustrated by Sunderland’s decision to cast him aside after promotion.
Though Browne suffered a leg break which limited him to 23 appearances last term, his experience on and off the pitch was often hailed for its importance by Sunderland boss Regis Le Bris. However, as the Wearsiders prepared for the Premier League campaign by bringing in no fewer than 13 new players, Browne was one of the men moved to the fringes.
With that in mind, the 30-year-old sought a late loan move, with playing games the most important thing for the Irish international. His availability coincided with Boro’s need for a midfielder as they looked to offload Dan Barlaser, while allowing Law McCabe to head out on loan.
On his frustrations at how things went at Sunderland, Browne told BBC Tees: "Yeah, of course. I think a lot of people probably are from last year. We're the players who got the club there and you'd like to think you'd be rewarded with a fair chance the following season. I'm disappointed but I completely understand the club's outlook.
"They want to stay in the Premier League, progress and get as high up the table as they can. They've made the choice to spend that money and bring in players who they think are capable of doing that and they didn't think most of the previous players were.
"It could be a fair assessment because you see it so often where teams go up and come down and go back up and become a yo-yo team. They obviously don't want to do that. I think they've probably looked at Nottingham Forest from a few years ago and tried to replicate that. Hopefully it works out. I'm not going to talk bad about them. I'm disappointed, which is fair, but hopefully I'll get another chance next season."
Browne arrived at Boro on transfer deadline day. He was straight in for his debut at his old stomping ground Preston North End on Saturday, coming off the bench in the second half. And he was adamant he got a touch to Boro’s stoppage time equaliser, which has officially been credited to Sontje Hansen.
Nevertheless, Browne is hopeful despite such strong competition in his position that he can continue to help Boro achieve their goals this season - with the midfieldre targeting successive promotions.
He said: "The move was quite sudden. I had interest elsewhere and I was inclined to go there, but the night before the window closed the gaffer rang me up and said they were interested. It ticked a lot of boxes and I think I can help the team as well as they can help me.
"It made sense to come here. They've made a great start, hopefully we can continue that. I did say if Middlesbrough came in it would be the ideal scenario to keep my family who are settled in the area around. In that regard it was brilliant, but also as a club, it's a massive club and I want to get a massive club back where they belong."